Montgomery County is in need of volunteers who can assist survivors of sexual assault, an ask that comes as the county grapples with an increase in these crimes and a decline in the number of people who are able to help.
For close to 20 years as a volunteer with Montgomery County’s Victim Assistance and Sexual Assault Program, Ron Cohen was one of those people who helped others heal after going through the most traumatic experiences of their life.
“They needed to be uplifted, and uplifting them uplifted me,” Cohen said.
Volunteers like him provide crisis-counseling and companion services at hospitals and police stations for survivors.
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“My outreach volunteering was one of the best things I ever did with my life,” he said.
Cohen is a week away from turning 86, so he’s scaled back his volunteering. Before the pandemic, the program had 30 volunteers, but that number has dwindled.
But the workload has only gone up.
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“We’ve seen a 40% increase in our in-take calls and our volume of services,” Dr. Rafiah Prince, the manager of Montgomery County trauma services, said.
She said volunteers make a massive difference.
“A lot of the times when folks come to the hospital, they’re there alone. They don’t have anybody there with them to support them,” she said. “Of course there’s medical staff, but in this role as a volunteer, you are separate from that. You are specifically there to be there with that person so that they're not alone.”
Volunteers receive 40 hours of specialized training and are on-call once a week. The commitment as a volunteer is for six months, but there are of course many like Cohen who stay much longer.
“I learned some things about life and about dealing with people that have held me in good stead ever since the day I walked through the door,” he said.
Volunteers must be 21 years old, have reliable transportation and be Montgomery County residents. The program is also in need of bilingual volunteers.
